Comparison of Data Gathered on Sensitive Questions via Direct Questionnaire, Randomized Response Technique, and a Projective Method

Abstract

1266 students participated in an interview on sensitive issues. Three very sensitive hypothetical situations were assessed by means of three methods, the direct questionnaire, the randomized-response technique, and a “most people” projective-form questionnaire. The data indicate that the first two methods yielded similar proportions of endorsement. However, the projective method yielded much higher proportions of endorsement. These data indicate that the former two methods seem to assess the same concept which is quite different from the one measured through the projective questionnaire. Since the randomized-response method assures the subjects of the confidentiality of their responses, the authors believe that the direct questionnaire and randomized-response data are closer to reality, that is, more valid.